606  Botany  and  Materia  Medica.         { ^Sbe^is™' 
NOTES  ON  THE  RECENT  LITERATURE  OF  BOTANY 
AND  MATERIA  MEDICA. 
By  George  M.  Beringer. 
In  accepting  the  commission  of  the  editor  to  prepare  for  the 
American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  reviews  and  abstracts  from  the 
current  literature  of  botany  and  materia  medica,  the  writer  fully 
realizes  the  impossibility  of  at  all  presenting  a  large  portion  of  the 
most  valuable  purely  scientific  labors  of  botanists,  and  must  neces- 
sarily restrict  the  contributions  to  those  most  salient  matters  of 
more  or  less  interest  to  pharmaceutical  readers. 
Botanical  nomenclature  continues  to  occupy 
Botanical        a  large  share  of  the  attention  of  systematic 
Nomenclature,     botanists,  especially  in  America.    Since  the 
action  of  the  Botanical  Section  of  the  A.  A. 
A.  S.,  at  the  Rochester  meeting  in  1892,  the  discussion  has  been 
persistently  maintained.    At  the  Madison  meeting  in  1893,  tne 
botanists  deemed  it  advisable  to  take  even  a  more  advanced  stand, 
adopting  the  rule  of  priority  in  toto.    The  resolutions  of  the  pre- 
vious year  were  amended,  and  the  clause  of  Section  III,  which  had 
decided  that  the  earliest  specific  name  is  not  to  be  retained  if  it  is 
identical  with  the  generic  name  or  with  a  specific  name  previously 
used  in  that  genera,  was  repealed. 
The  repeal  of  this  clause  is  to  be  regretted,  as  it  has  rendered  pos- 
sible the  adoption  of  such  barbarian  scientific  names  as  Apios  Apios, 
Hepatica  Hepatica,  Benzoin  Benzoin,  Barbarea  Barbarea,  Abutilon 
Abutilon,  Linaria  Linaria,  and  Catalpa  Catalpa. 
The  "  List  of  Pteridophyta  and  Spermatophyta  Growing  Without 
Cultivation  in  Northeastern  America,"  prepared  by  the  committee 
appointed  by  these  conventions,  represents  the  views  of  the  most 
progressive  of  the  nomenclaturists,  and  has  focussed  the  discussion 
which,  in  some  directions,  has  become  quite  personal  and  acrimonious. 
It  is  significant  that  these  radical  ideas  of  nomenclature  are  being 
largely  adopted  by  American  botanical  writers,  and  that  in  such  a 
classical  work  as  "  Sargent's  Silva  of  North  America,"  these  rules  are 
being  strictly  followed. 
The  following  list  shows  a  few  of  the  changes  proposed  in  the 
names  of  some  of  the  best  known-plants.  To  pharmacists  it  is  in- 
teresting to  note  the  changes  these  views  effect  in  the  names  of 
